Due to the large uptake of social media and online entertainment such as video, IAB Europe research has now shown that the majority of Europeans go online 6 to 7 times a week now. Northern Europeans go online more frequently than Eastern Europeans who tend to go online for longer periods.

The individual country statistics showed that Belgian, Danish, Italian and Swedish users accessed their email most and Belgians were also the most likely to use search engines. Consumer confidence had gone up and a major factor in this has been Online Banking with Norwegians leading the way while Romanians trailed at 19% uptake.

The UK showed a preference for “real” news and still preferred traditional print with the lowest uptake at 68%, however with many new mediums coming online ie the Apple Ipad we have yet to see how this will impact printed newspapers in the coming years.

Still the Ecommerce Market is thriving with 57% of Europeans having made an online purchase in the last 12 months. Eastern Europe again showed hesitancy with only 24% making online purchases.

Year on year we see rises within this market and with the many benefits of trading online and the audiences you can reach its little wonder why it’s doing so well.

Success in ecommerce is not a given though, it still takes a lot of hard work and working with the right partners and having the right platform to deliver results.